Role Models
A few years ago, I spent a summer as the games director for my local “Boys and Girls Club” and, every so often, I’d find myself standing in a puddle of “only God knows what” starring at some unremorseful pipsqueak who deserved a good smack in the head. With that background, it’s easy to say that I, not only enjoyed “Role Models,” but also related to the awkward situations brought on when looking after someone half your age with twice your energy.
“Role Models” tells the story of salesmen Danny and Wheeler, who spend their days encouraging school kids to stay off drugs and drink their companies energy drink instead. When Danny, sardonically played by the always funny Paul Rudd, is dumped by his girlfriend, he and Wheeler (Seann Williams Scott) go on a energy drink bender, ending with Danny crashing the company truck into a city monument.
Given the choice between thirty days in jail or community service, the boys begin to help at Sturdy Wings, a “Big Brothers, Big Sisters” type program. There they meet their matches. Danny is teamed up with Augie Farks, “Superbad’s” Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who wears a cape, wields a foam sword, and participates in medieval fantasy role-playing, while Wheeler is given a short foul-mouthed menace named Ronnie (Bobb’e J. Thompson). As the movie pans out, the two reluctant teams begin to warm up to each other and the funny moments mix well with the poignant ones.
With the cast and the premise the way it is, you’d almost swear this film would have the name “Judd Apatow” attached to it somewhere, but that isn’t the case. In fact, this little flick is directed by David Wain, know by comedy aficionados as one of the members of “Stella,” and it follows much closer to his type of dry wit then the fouler more pop-cultured dialogue of an Apatow production. In fact, it’s this sarcastic dryness that sells the film for me.
Throughout the picture, both Danny and Wheeler have this unflinching correctivness, which is unleashed anytime someone says something stupid. Instead of berating the speaker, the characters simply repeat what was said and add the tiniest hint of sarcasm to it. Not only does this come off as funny, but also opens up the realization that much of the stuff said in life deserves an arch of the eyebrow and a quiet, “Really?”
Like some of the kids I’ve met at “Boys and Girls Club,” “Role Models” may be sometimes crass and juvenile but it does have its heart in the right place, and for that, you have to admire it.
3 out of 5 stars